Yay! That was l33t

Author: BandWidth ()
Date: 2000-04-24 00:00:00

On 4/24/00 at 16:26 SM_007 wrote:
>Author's Note: For best viewing, check out this story in Internet Explorer. Or, heck, just don't use Netscape, which always regulates the Times New Roman font to size 10. That is all.

>

Final Collision

>

Tridus slumped down against the wall near the humming warp core, and sighed. He had been working on this damn ship for the last couple of weeks, and had yet to get the thing running properly. He brushed his brow with his dirty arm sleeve, and looked over to a nearby table, where Sashie was having a nap quietly. He smiled, wiped some more sweat from his forehead, then once again hunched over, on his hands and knees, and attempted to fix the malfunctioning second power relay station to the warp core. At least Sashie was fixed.

>The problem with the warp core...it could have been anything, really. That's how Tridus felt as he sighed and began to remove some of the wires. Everyone on the ship was sleeping. Tridus remembered that he wasn't the only person who was exhausted. This new threat of the B3 robot and MysteryMan's return as some other cyborg left everyone shaken, and the crew had had no time to rest since their last big battle with the agents, and the Arc, and anything else that was thrown their way.

>These thoughts were going in and out of Tridus' head as he looked into the warm, glowing workstation. Everything, aside from the usual beeps and hums of the ship itself, was quiet...until, that is, Tridus heard a large electrical discharge, and bumped his when he was startled. He crawled backwards, out of the hole he was working in, rubbing his head. Tridus looked up, and saw the green glow of a familier teleport beam...one he'd hoped he'd never have to see again; not after the Starfleet crew disposed of his worst nightmare. But here they were.

>The three beams slowly faded away, leaving a battered and tired Albatross, an agent, and none other than SM_007. Tridus' mouth almost dropped to the floor in pure shock. Albatross took a step forward, and almost looked as tired as Tridus was, a change from his usual calm and collected composure. Tridus got to his feet, but didn't say a word. He saw Sashie in the corner of his eye, and made sure to keep her there, to protect her.

>"Tridus, I am going to make this simple," Albatross said, quietly, in a raspy voice that had a sense of desperation to it. "I had found the fountain of youth, you see. I had found the key to immortality. A key which you destroyed out of your own ignorance, destroying a technology which could have saved millions! If you had of helped me, we could have worked together, and we could have--"

>"You killed my family!" Tridus snarled. "You ruined my life! I had a good job as a research scientist for the government, a beautiful wife, a beautiful daughter, and the possibility to help millions of people myself, before you took it all away from me out of your own selfish needs! How could I ever work with you?"

>Albatross looked at SM_007, who stared back with his normal, cold look. Albatross looked back at Tridus, took a deep breath, and spoke again.

>"And I suppose we are even now, you'd think? Hm?" Albatross said, trying to remain calm but failing. "You destroyed my lab. Those damn Starfleet officers found me, came back, and took it all away, thanks to you! I only needed a bit more time, but you were too stubborn! Now the agents are all in custody..."

>"How the hell did you get away from them, anyway?"

>"I had the agents attack the armed officers in a suicide mission, of course. I needed them to cause a distraction so I could get away. One agent came with me, and he is the last specimen I have to further my work. I came back, spoke with SM_007, and gave him one last chance to help me...to help me live. I do not have much time left."

>SM_007 looked over at Tridus, and said nothing.

>"I have said enough, I believe," Albatross finished. "I am going to do something I should have done a long, long time ago. I am going to kill you, kill your laptop, and put you and your crew out of your misery. I am going to use this ship as my new base. It's technology is toop advanced for even the Starfleet officers to come back and find when it's cloaked."

>Tridus opened his mouth, but did not have anything to say. Instead, he leaped at Sashie, and attempted to switch her on, knowing she'd at least have the power to do something to stop the agents. But before he could make it, he was intercepted by the nameless clone, who put one hand on the table, beside Sashie, and spun his legs around, kicking Tridus hard in the chest. Tridus crashed into one of the stained, steel Klingon walls, and fell down. The agent moved to stand over him, as Albatross and SM_007 approached Sashie.

>"It's a shame you could not help me, Tridus," Albatross gloated. "I realize that you may be the only man in this universe who holds the knowledge on preserving the human mind in a CPU, but I also know that you would never help me. So, I suppose I will have to take my chances, and work without your assistance."

>The agent moved closer to Tridus, and placed the cold steel of his gun against Tridus' temple, just as Tridus was coming to his feet. A loud click broke the sudden silence, and the agent was ready to fire. Before he could do so, however, SM_007 suddenly pushed Albatross to the ground, and leaped into the air, in the swan fighting stance. He hovered for a few seconds, as the agent and Tridus looked up in awe at what seemed to be frozen time. SM_007 then came down hard with a kick to the agent, who slammed into the wall beside Tridus with amazing force; enough that the agent had to actually pull himself to his feet.

>No one said anything after this point, instead, they swung into action. Tridus looked over to Albatross, and decided to make the meek human pay for his crimes. Albatross was still coming to his feet when Tridus casually walked over, with a look of pure disdain crossing his face, and kicked Albatross hard in the gut. Albatross groaned and fell back to his knees. Tridus kicked him again, hard, in the ribs, and Albatross rolled onto his back, his expression full of anguish.

>In the meantime, the agent moved with hyper-fast speed, attempting to punch, kick, grab and throw SM_007. Howevever, SM_007 began blocking every punch, every kick, and every attempt the agent made to harm him. SM_007, using only one hand to block the agent, used his other to calmly remove his silenced PP7 pistol. He began lifting it to the head of the agent, who was trying desperately to gain some offense on SM_007. The pistol was now aiming square at the agent's head, who, when seeing it, froze.

>"Dodge this," SM_007 smirked.

>But before SM_007 could do anything, his head began to throb in extreme pain. He dropped the pistol, and began clutching at his brain. As he did so, Albatross seemed to gain a second wind, coming to his feet behind a distracted Tridus, who was looking at SM_007, who was now squirming on the ground. Tridus looked back at Albatross in time just to see that he had pulled out an old revolver and was aiming it directly between his eyes.

>"You see, Tridus," Albatross kissed. "I am the puppetmaster. I gave SM_007 one last chance to redeem himself, and he could not. Now, I am stripping him of all the wonderful gifts I gave him, and empowering myself. When I am done with that bastard child, he will be nothing more than a normal man in a tuxedo. Worthless and weak, like he was before we found him."

>Tridus heard the agent walking behind him, but didn't look. He was still staring into the barrel of Albatross' gun. The only sound, for a few seconds, was the calm hum of the warp core. Albatross said nothing, almost as if he had to savour the moment, to achueve some sort of perverted pleasure from Tridus' death. Then, Tridus heard the familier voice of Sashie chime in, a voice which made Tridus smile. He had forgotten that she had been almost finished recharging when the agents had made their unwelcome appearance.

>"Here, daddy!" Sashie cried. The air cackled with energy as a large anvil appeared a few feet above the head of the agent and Albatross, and they both sped down at incredible speeds, nailing the both of them. This was almost comical to Tridus, who alwasy knew that Sashie had a cartoon-related sense of humour. But unfortunately, Tridus had to act quickly, and couldn't sit around pondering his daughter's methods of attack. The agent would be up in a few seconds, though Albatross would be lucky if he was even alive.

>Tridus ran over, and picked up the gun from the agent. He then ran over to the opposite wall and pressed the button on the intercom.

>"Zuh? Wah?" a groggy BandWidth replied over the intercom. "Intruders? We'll all be down there ASAP! Secure the area!"

>"Roger! It's an agent, SM, and Albatross! Out!" Tridus snapped as he let go of the intercom. He imagined that right now BandWidth was furrowing his brow in slight confusion upon hearing those names. When Tridus spun around and got ready to shut the main engineering bay emergency doors, he saw the agent, now coming to his feet, walking speedily over to where Sashie was.

>"NO!" Tridus screamed as he charged at the table, knowing he wouldn't make it to his daughter before the agent would. However, when the agent went to pick Sashie up, sparks hit his hands and he lept backwards. Tridus knew that Sashie had put a small fore field around herself for protection. It made him proud that she was a quick-thinker. She must have gotten that from him. The agent, in the meantime, attempted to pick up Sashie again, but recieved the same reaction.

>"Na na na naa naa!" Sashie giggled at the enraged agent. Seeing Tridus come close, he looked for his pistol, which wasn't there. Agitated, he began to powerwalk over to Tridus, which immediately had Tridus backpeddling away from the dangerous agent. However, when the agent was a few steps away from ending Tridus' life with one swift movement, he stopped. The agent groaned for a second, then fell to the ground, and a sharp tool that Tridus had been using to repair the bulkhead was sticking from his back. The agent quickly evaporated as the weapon clanked to the ground. Standing behind the agent was SM_007, who looked more than disoriented. He fell back down to the ground, and passed out.

>Tridus was about to speak when the click of a gun interrupted him. This had been so common that he almost rolled his eyes at the endless distractions. Albatross was standing beside the warp core, a noticeable stream of blood pouring from his head. He had his pistol pointed at the warp core.

>"You think I'd go down alone?" he asked sarcastically. In the distance, he saw the rest of the Riptide crew whom he recognized from their recent battle running towards the engineering bay. Tridus was also only a few feet away from him. The evil agent grinned evilly, bearing his teeth as blood trickled into his mouth. He then fired the gun, and immediately, the ship rocked as the alarm system activated. Sashie slid off her table and onto the floor as Tridus fell backwards onto the ground.

>A loud, angry voice in Klingon came over the PA system as Tridus reminded himself that he'd need to upgrade that. The Klingon computer voice was warning the crew, Tridus estimated, that there was a warp core leak and that the area would be sealed off as the crew would then abandon ship be procedure. Tridus glanced over to the large hallway outside the engineering bay and saw two large doors sliding closed before the rest of the Riptide staff could get into where they were. Tridus got to his feet and saw the toxic gas pour from the small hole in the core, and knew that even though the ship was not going to explode, the leak itself was sure enough to kill them.

>Tridus dashed over to Albatross, who was barely able to stand. He fired a shot at Tridus, but the shot went wide and Tridus nailed Albatross with a mean uppercut. Albatross staggered into the warp core, and was almost unconscious. Tridus took the man by his bloody hair and smashed his head into the core, right near the bullet hole. Albatross coughed as his body tumbled to the ground and a blanket of gas poured over his body. Tridus knew he would not wake up.

>With the remaining time, Tridus stumbled over to the intercom. When he activated it, he immediately heard the panicky voice of Edge, who was screaming at anyone from inside the warp core to respond. Tridus shotung over Edge's voice in repsonse.

>"Dammit, Edge, shut up and listen! We need an immediate transport the hell out of here, and now! Me, Sashie, SM! Get us the hell out of here!"

>There was silence for a moment, and Tridus wasn't sure if he got the message over the loud Klingon computer voice, the loud gas pouring out from the warp core and the blaring siren. Not to mention Edge's own screaming.

>"Yeah, we got you!" Edge delightfully responded.

>With that, a blue particle beam coated the bodies of SM_007, who was on the ground unconscious, Sashie, and finally, Tridus, who was beginning to feel lightheaded because of the reactor fumes. When they were done transporting, Tridus realized that he was in a bed. Well, a Klingon bed in a Klingon sick bay, which was less than accomidating. He looked over and saw SM_007 in the bed next to him, just starting to awaken. Tridus sat up, and put his hands on his temples.

>"Easy, there," RStefan01's voice comforted Tridus. "You might still be a little lightheaded. You'll be okay, though, and rRaminrodt is already getting underway with some repairs to the warp core. Well, with the help of Sashie, of course. We should be up and running within a day. Anyway, rest now."

>RStefan01 left the medical bay as Tridus looked over at SM_007, who was now sitting up and straightening out his suit. He looked up at Tridus, said nothing, and continued to straighten out his shirt and tie before hopping to his feet.

>"What now?" Tridus asked.

>"Now I leave," SM_007 said, still not looking up at Tridus. "What else can I do, anyway? Stay here and pretend nothing ever happened? I can't do that. I've got a lot on my mind, Tridus. Who says this is where I belong, anyway? Who says that I wanted to help you stop Albatross? He was..."

>SM_007 sighed. He got ready to walk away, but Tridus jumped to his feet, groggily, and put his hand on SM_007's shoulder. SM_007 stopped walking and looked back at Tridus, who was more serious now than SM_007 had seen him in a long, long time. He took a deep breath and spoke.

>"I'm not going to ask you to stay. I am telling you that if you ever want to get through this crap, you'll stay. Nothing between me and you is settled, and I am sure the same goes for the rest of the Riptide crew." Tridus took a deep breath and spoke again. "You just can't run away and hide while the rest of us face that uknown out there, day after day. Does that sound like you at all, SM? I don't think it does. You think you're going through some tough times? Guess what, SM, what you have gone through these last few weeks doesn't compare to what I have gone through my entire life. And yeah, I've ran away before. So what? It never helped, and I spent years of my life wasted and alone instead of facing my problems head on. Now grow up and do the right thing for a change."

>Just as Tridus finished that sentence, BandWidth came into the room and walked right up to SM_007, who wasn't really paying attention. He finally snapped out of it and looked up at BandWidth.

>"Um, sure, you can stay. Geez, we'll have to put your car in the cargo area, I guess. Hm. You do realize that I will have to confine you to quarters, right? I mean, just for safety reasons?"

>SM_007 nodded and said nothing.

>"Okay, then, I will show you to a room."

>SM_007 and BandWidth left the medical bay as Tridus laid back down and slept, taking a chance to rest...a chance he did not have for a long, long time.

>The End!

>Changes by this storee:
>SM_007 is now back with the USS Riptide and her crew, though he has lost all of his powers of evahl that Albatross had given him. Speaking of which, Albatross is finally and truly dead, as is the agent he came back in time with.